Vietnam welcomes 11.6 million foreign tourists in nine months

Hanoi (VNA) – The number of
international tourist arrivals to Vietnam in the third quarter of this year increased
14.9 percent against the same period last year, according to the General
Statistics Office (GSO).

However, the figure was still lower than those in
the first and second quarters which stood at 30.9 percent and 23.1 percent,
respectively.

Between January and September, Vietnam welcomed some
11.61 million foreign holiday-makers, a year-on-year rise of 22.9 percent, with
visitors by air, road and sea up 17.4 percent, 62.1 percent and 0.5 percent,
respectively.

In September, the Vietnam National Administration of
Tourism (VNAT) conducted various activities in foreign markets in an effort to
attract international vacationers.

Also this month, the agency held tourism promotion activities
for the first time in Canada on the occasion of the 45th anniversary
of bilateral diplomatic ties (1973-2018).

Vietnam’s policies, destinations, tourism products
and services for foreign tourists were introduced in the Canadian market.

In Asia, apart from China, the Philippines, Vietnam
and Japan record a high rise in the number of Canadian visitors, said the
VNAT’s Tourism Marketing Department.

The VNAT plans to team up with the US Travel
Association and the Hanoi Promotion Agency to organise a tourism promotion
programme in Washington DC and New York.

The US has remained one of Vietnam’s top five
tourism markets with the number of vacationers to the country exceeding 614,000
in 2017, up 11 percent against 2016. As of August 2018, Vietnam had served
486,000 US holiday-makers, a year-on-year increase of 14.5 percent.-VNA